Voter education campaign launched

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Voter education campaign launched

7:50 CAT | 27 Aug 2018

Photo: Notícias

Mozambique’s National Elections Commission (CNE) on Saturday launched the voter education campaign in all 53 municipalities ahead of the municipal elections scheduled for 10 October.

In Maputo City 165 voter education agents are involved in mobilising about 615,000 potential voters in the capital.

Launching the campaign in the Laulane Secondary School, the chairperson of the City Elections Commission, Ana Chemane, said the campaign will involve raising the awareness of voters about the new form that the local elections are taking this year.

In all the previous four rounds of municipal elections (1998, 2003, 2008 and 2013) the electorate has voted on separate ballot papers for the mayor and for the municipal assembly. But constitutional amendments passed earlier this year scrapped the direct election of mayors.

Now the election is only for the municipal assembly, and the head of the list of whichever party or citizen’s group wins the largest number of votes will automatically become mayor. Under this system, voters can no longer vote for a mayor from one party and members of the municipal assembly from another.

“We have trained voter education agents who for 30 days will work on the ground to educate potential voters and invite them to go to the polling stations on 10 October to avoid abstentions”, said Chemane. “Our goal is zero abstention”.

That is a tall order. Turnout has generally been lower in municipal than in general elections. In the 2013 municipal elections, abstention in Maputo was almost 50 per cent, and in several other municipalities it went to over 60 per cent, reaching a high point of 71.2 per cent in Malema, in the northern province of Nampula.

Chemane described the voter education agents as the main vehicle for transmitting the message that citizens need to elect their future municipal leaders.

“They carry the message that the right to vote is a civic duty, a duty of citizenship, and that all voters should go to the polling stations and vote”, she said. “They should vote for the municipal leaders. If they don’t vote, they’re sure to complain later. That’s the main message – take your voter card and go to the polling stations”.

Source: AIM